1. Sources 2011

2. Smartphone Operating Systems

2.1. iOS

2.1.1. Pros:

2.1.1.1. 1. The UI design has a sense of timelessness to it and no matter how many times you look at it it does not look boring. Apple has also designed it in a manner where it is out of your way most of the time so that you can concentrate on your applications. This means there are no unnecessary animations and transition effects and whatever little is there looks natural and is functional.

2.1.1.2. 2. In our experience iOS has turned out to be the easiest mobile operating system, where everything was so clear and obvious that anyone who used it for the first time, regardless of age, could figure it out without having to refer to a manual. The reason for this is that it does not assume that the user knows how to use it and because of that you can go around doing basic things without any help. It is incredibly intuitive and makes you wonder why others haven't figured out a way to make their software work this way. It feels as if it was designed with regular human beings in mind, not robots or geeks. We loved the keyboard especially.

2.1.2. Cons:

2.1.2.1. 1. There is no jailbreak or unlock for iOS 4 yet.

2.1.2.2. 2. Provisioning devices and publishing apps is a very extensive process.

2.2. Android

2.2.1. Pros:

2.2.1.1. 1. Android's biggest advantage over iOS has been the features and with the latest release Android has almost every feature that you could want, whether it is multitasking, widgets, tethering, Wi-Fi hotspot or Adobe Flash support. It feels the most complete out of all the four platforms here in terms of features, and if features are all that you are looking for then you would be happiest with Android.

2.2.1.2. 2. Also, Android does not use the GPU to render the on-screen images, which means the CPU is overburdened, causing further slowdowns. Still, with some optimization, Android can be made to work pretty well on slower devices.

2.2.2. Cons:

2.2.2.1. 1. It does not have the same level of simplicity as iOS, were you can detach you brain and still manage to work the interface, but it is still very easy nonetheless. Unfortunately, you would rarely get to use stock Android on every phone you use, which means if you are someone who's not a geek and are used to, say, an HTC Android phone, you will be lost when you pick up a Samsung Android phone.

2.2.2.2. 2. Android does not work well on low-end devices. The UI of Windows Phone 7 is so smooth, it gives you the illusion of moving physical objects around instead of UI elements, an illusion that Android fails to maintain, thanks to the occasional stutter. Unfortunately, the smoothness is only limited to the default applications as third-party applications could not live up to the same standards that Microsoft has set. We have seen Android developers come up with smoother applications even though they had no idea what phone their application would be running on. We hope things get better in future as these applications are updated.

2.3. RIM

2.3.1. Pros:

2.3.1.1. 1

2.3.1.2. 2

2.3.2. Cons:

2.3.2.1. 1

2.3.2.2. 2

2.4. Symbian

2.4.1. Pros:

2.4.1.1. 1. have the best battery life among smartphones.

2.4.1.2. 2. One of the greatest strengths of Symbian is that it has always been a very light operating system that could be run even by weaker hardware. This is why all the Symbian phones have hardware that seem less impressive than what we are used to seeing on high-end devices, but that is absolutely fine as even on that hardware the OS runs perfectly well.

2.4.2. Cons:

2.4.2.1. 1. Symbian 3 borrows the basic UI design of its predecessor and improves upon it. Despite that the end result is not something that one would call modern. You can see the roots of the operating systems, such as the soft keys at the bottom of the screen that were necessary for devices with buttons and a scroll bar for when there was no kinetic scrolling. It does not look bad per se, but it is not in the same league as others. Luckily, it is skinnable, so you can give a new look to it with a custom skin, although don't expect to make a swan out of a goose.

2.4.2.2. 2. There was a time when people boasted about the number of applications that Symbian has. Although it does have one of the best libraries of applications available in terms of sheer numbers, a lack of application store meant it was difficult to have access to them.

3. Operating System Definition

4. PC Operating Systems

4.1. Ubuntu

4.1.1. Pros:

4.1.1.1. 1. Fast and easy installation.

4.1.1.2. 2. Ubuntu’s look is one of streamlined productivity with keeping the mouse at the top left of the screen as much as possible. This is a great design choice, as it gives easy access to application menus, quick buttons (close, maximize, minimize) and the Application launchers themselves. It just makes sense, and gives you the quick mouse application launching you get from Windows, with the elegance and ease of use of OSX.

4.1.2. Cons:

4.1.2.1. 1. A Downfall of the Ubuntu Installer is that it presents options for adding the Adobe Flash player and MP3 music playback as installable options, instead of defaulted options. This is a downside for most of us, is if we do not select to install this software at the begining, it can leave us wondering why our Music isn’t playing or Youtube isn’t working.

4.1.2.2. 2. Security Updates aren’t released on a regular schedule, like Windows or Apple. They are made available as they become available to the rest of the world. In the open source world of Ubuntu, that could mean a Security patch is provided within a few hours of being discovered.

4.1.3. Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and is distributed as free and open source software with additional proprietary software available. It is named after the Southern African ethical principle Ubuntu ("humanity towards others"). Ubuntu provides an up-to-date, stable operating system for the average user, with a strong focus on usability and ease of installation. Web statistics suggest that Ubuntu's share of Linux desktop usage is about 50%, and upward trending usage as a web server. Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based company Canonical Ltd.

4.2. Windows 7

4.2.1.2. 2. From this installer, you simply walk through the Wizard and let the system go!

4.2.2. Cons:

4.2.2.1. 1. Lack of a decent boot slows down startup considerably.

4.2.2.2. 2. Extermely easy to use for a basic installation, but more advanced options, like partition sizes, are harder to come by.

4.3. Mac OS X

4.3.1. Pros:

4.3.1.1. 1. Faster Boot Time.

4.3.1.2. 2. Everything you normally need is already available on the dock. Web browser, email, file manager, media player, it’s all there. The use of a universal menu bar at the top of the screen is great, and saves screen real-estate for applications. This is one of the greatest things Mac OSX has going for it.

4.3.2. Cons:

4.3.2.1. 1. Apple does an OK job of releasing security updates, but they are usually released in large patches instead of as they become available.

4.3.2.2. 2. Where the Mac OSX Installer fails, is in it’s partitioning. If the hard drive is blank, it will not initialize the drive itself. You need to start Disk Utility to do that, and setup the partitions yourself.